Gun Proponents Test Strength In Recall Vote

LOS ANGELES — By this time, California state Sen. David Roberti had hoped to be uneventfully serving out the last months of his long career in politics.

With a term-limit law banning him from running again for his seat, the 27-year legislator had listened to his wife's advice, discarded the notion of seeking another post, and was on the verge of ending his public life as budget dealer, education champion and gun-control advocate.

Instead, the former Senate president finds himself in the throes of a high-pitched election campaign this spring, waving an illegal Uzi machine gun and standing by while aides display how easily an AK47 automatic rifle can rip apart watermelons.

What brought Roberti, 54, eagerly back to the hustings was a recall campaign staged primarily by gun-control opponents, including the National Rifle Association, who want to strip him of his seat with less than eight months to serve.

Not satisfied to let their old foe just drift away, the gun advocates wanted to punish Roberti for authoring such laws as the nation's first ban on assault weapons. They also wanted to send a message that they can make life rough for any public official who opposes them.

While the gun lobby frequently aids campaigns against its foes, advocates on both sides of the issue say the recall effort is a new strategy being pursued at a time when the public is especially crime-conscious and public officials have been more open to stricter gun controls.

Roberti's fate will be decided Tuesday by voters in his San Fernando Valley district on the edge of Los Angeles. A loss would be the first successful recall election in California since before World War I, but some observers say that even if Roberti wins, the campaign could have a chilling effect on politicians.

"This will have shot a message across the bow," said Sherry Bebitch Jeffe, a California political analyst. "There's not a lot of courageous politicians running around, and what they're learning from this is that the gun lobby can make their lives miserable, so why give them the opportunity?"

The gun issue has turned the local affair into a national showdown. While NRA officials have refused to reveal their exact role in the campaign, local recall advocates and Roberti campaign officials said the nation's premier gun lobby began a get-out-the-vote phone campaign last weekend.

On the other side, Handgun Control Inc., a Washington, D.C.-based group run by gun-control advocates James and Sarah Brady, helped Roberti pay for one-minute radio ads beginning Saturday. And three dozen volunteers from Roman Catholic churches in San Francisco arrived over the weekend to help out.

A Los Angeles Times poll in late March indicated that Roberti maintained a comfortable lead in his predominantly Democratic district. But an expected low turnout for a special election could hurt his chances if recall proponents rally their supporters to the polls.

The senator needs a simple majority of votes to maintain his seat. If he falls short, the job will go to the top vote-getter among five other candidates who filed to place their names on the ballot. Two of them are recall campaign officials.

After the gun lobby targeted him, Roberti resigned his post as Senate president last December and prepared to fight back. He has since decided to run for state treasurer, but first must concentrate on Tuesday's vote.

Roberti has raised close to $700,000 to fight the recall. His opponents have not been able to match that, but they collected $50,000 over the last two weeks for a last-minute mail advertising barrage. Among the contributors was a group called Gun Owners of California.

"The bigger the turnout, the better off I am, but all the gun nuts will turn out. We know they're coming," Roberti said. "They want to take Roberti out as a message to others. But our message is that we're going to fight back. Two can play this target game."

The battle against Roberti is being spearheaded by a group called the Coalition to Restore Public Integrity. Its members include anti-tax and victims-rights activists, and group leaders say their complaint with Roberti is not just about guns but with what they call his tax-and-spend, liberal record. They also have tried to tie him to corruption scandals that rocked Sacramento during his 13 years as Senate president.

The group says Roberti has distorted their message by identifying them only as gun-oriented. But memos leaked to Roberti's campaign reveal that a gunowners' group called Californians Against Corruption had been planning the campaign as long as a year ago.

In the memos, some of which were appeals to the NRA for help, group members discuss the benefits of targeting specific politicians and judges for recall.

"Victory springs from imparting excruciating political pain in unrelenting repetitive attacks on a single politican as an example to others," recall leader Russ Howard wrote in a memo to the NRA in February 1993.

"We may not win a particular election, but our methods . . . (make) it exceedingly expensive, difficult and unpleasant for the target to remain in office."

Reached at recall headquarters Monday, Howard said the memos have been taken out of context and simply described a fundraising pitch.

Howard's group, Californians Against Corruption, has accepted political donations from the NRA, but he insisted the national group didn't officially enter the Roberti recall effort until two weeks ago, when it staged a candidates' forum.

Gun-control advocates think the methods will backfire.

"I know the NRA is using this as a way to intimidate politicians, but I don't think it will work," said Susan Whitmore, communications director for Handgun Control Inc.

"Politicians know how the public feels and what their constituents want, and that's controls."